Chapter 24: Shooting a Bear
A child who is just over one year old can just understand human speech and is at the time when he has formed the deepest bond with his parents. He was suddenly taken away and cried for several days. Just when he finally accepted reality, he started to go hungry.
Pain and fear can make a child very obedient.
This fear will accompany him as he grows up, living cautiously and fearfully amidst rampant extortion, eventually turning him into someone like Yan Chunsheng.
Guan Zhiwei clicked her tongue. "Ugh, so annoying. I was hoping to find a peaceful place to stay."
"Don't try to escape. It's the same everywhere." Hei Lao Er comforted him. "Many people from other places have come to this village to seek refuge. They say it's chaotic outside. There are wars everywhere. They massacre people after they capture a city. If the defending army takes the city, they massacre people again. Some cities have been massacred four or five times in a row. There are no survivors left."
The most effective way to comfort oneself is to compete in who is worse.
You're not doing well, but others are doing even worse.
"How about we settle down here for now?" Madam Feng asked tentatively.
Guan Zhiwei glanced around.
Madam Feng's face was pale, her hair was disheveled, and she looked exhausted.
She had some hidden injuries and secretly applied medicine every day without getting any rest. She was constantly running around, feeling both pain and exhaustion.
The old woman is getting on in years and her mind isn't very good. She spends all her time huddled on a cart, and the bumpy mountain roads only make her mind more muddled.
Atu is young and was frightened. He fell ill and needs to rest.
Even Gouya and Yan Chunsheng were full of anticipation; they wanted to settle down somewhere and didn't want to look for a new place to live.
Admittedly, the second brother of the gang talked about how miserable life was here and how much they would be exploited by the powerful families, but compared to the terrifying world outside, they were willing to endure it.
As long as they don't massacre the city, as long as they don't lose their lives, they're willing to endure three days of hunger and nine meals a day.
Guan Zhiwei's combat strength is 100. Her physical recovery ability has improved, and her pain perception has decreased, making her different from ordinary people.
But she brought a group of ordinary people with her, including the old and the young, the sick and the weak.
The limitations of the times, the growing pains of development, and the twists and turns of the process all beckoned to her, urging her to stay and wait.
“Then we’ll have to bother Second Brother for a bit,” she said.
The second brother waved his hand: "What do you mean by disturbing me? If you hadn't come, I wouldn't even have been able to eat. My house isn't big, but it has two rooms, which is perfect for men and women to live in separately."
Staying is a huge attraction for everyone, even though the house isn't very well built and there might be drafts in the corners, it's still better than sleeping on the ground in the open.
Autumn has arrived, and the weather is getting colder every day. It would be wonderful to have a place to shelter from the wind and rain.
The second brother got more and more excited as he spoke: "Our mountains are very deep, with jackals, wolves, tigers and leopards. The Chen family didn't fence off the mountains, so it doesn't cost them to come and go. With Xiao Guan around, we're not afraid of any wild animals, and we can even have some meat."
Guan Zhiwei nodded: "It's getting cold, so I'll hunt down some jackals and tigers, skin them, and make clothes from their hides."
"I'm not bragging, but I'm really good with my hands. I can sew, but I don't have any thread, so I have to go up the mountain to pick some grass and twist it." Madam Feng perked up.
Dogtooth quickly said, "If we can bring back two eggs from the mountains, my grandma will raise chickens. I'm strong, I can chop firewood."
A-Tu suddenly said weakly, "I can move firewood."
Madam Feng looked at her son and wept with joy, then touched his little face, saying, "You're the most capable."
Humans are so resilient; no matter what, they will always find a way to survive, and even survive quite well.
What could possibly cause them, who don't ask for much, to live such a miserable life?
It's so hard just to survive.
Guan Zhiwei suddenly realized that although she had lived for a very, very long time, so long that her memories had become blurred, she had always followed the walkthrough and had never truly opened her eyes to see the world.
She decided to stop and settle down in this small mountain village.
This counts as moving, so we should have a housewarming party to celebrate.
So the next day at daybreak, she drank a couple of mouthfuls of porridge, picked up a woven basket, and went into the mountains.
She wants to get some meat.
Dogtooth wanted to go with them, but she refused. She wasn't familiar with the mountains and was afraid she wouldn't have the energy to protect him. Besides, the village wasn't particularly safe, and they needed someone alert to keep an eye on things.
She carefully entered the mountain.
She carried out a brown bear.
At the time, they were quite far away, and the villagers all thought a bear had entered the village. They were so frightened that they hid in their houses and only dared to open a crack in the window to look out.
Later, no more killing or roaring occurred. After everyone came out and discussed it, they learned that someone had hit a bear and dragged it into Blackie's house.
From then on, everyone was filled with awe for the second brother of the gang.
That family was full of old people, young children, sick people, and weak people (Guan Zhiwei was among them). Apart from him, a strong man, who else could fight a bear?
For a time, his rough and unpleasant personality was transformed into heroic qualities.
Because her parents had passed away and she was so poor that no one else cared about her, she became a hot commodity.
One of the girls even gave him a flirtatious look: "You're really amazing to be able to kill a bear."
Blackie scratched his head, unsure of what to say, but he hoped this beautiful misunderstanding would last forever.
“I know she’s strong, but I can’t connect her to her frail appearance. We’re all human, what’s wrong with me?” Dogtooth broke down, utterly bewildered. He looked down at himself and it seemed like that was the only difference.
He almost went astray.
When he finally regained consciousness, he saw Madam Feng.
Madam Feng struggled to even wash the bear skin, but Yan Chunsheng shamelessly stepped in to help, washing and sewing it. And let me tell you, he was even better at needlework than Madam Feng.
Guan Zhiwei was definitely being greedy when she attacked this bear; she wanted to eat meat, lots and lots of meat.
I never expected that bears wouldn't taste good.
"I used to eat bear paws, and they were quite delicious. Orchid bear paw was even a famous dish. I ate it when I was a concubine." She was also at a loss, wondering where the problem lay.
The bear meat was tough and dry, and had a slightly fishy smell.
She was so hungry she couldn't eat it.
【Are you stupid? Bear paws need to go through processes like removing hair, removing the fishy smell, and soaking, which can take several days. The accompanying ingredients include pigeon eggs, fish paste, chicken paste, and ham, and it needs to be stewed until tender. Yours is just dry bear meat, and you didn't stew it long enough to save firewood—no wonder it doesn't taste good!】
Guan Zhiwei suddenly realized: "So that's how it is."
The system deliberately asked: "Don't you have a gourmet system?"
"When I had the food system, I could cook a dish and win a man's favor. Favorability was roughly equivalent to points, and those points could be exchanged for seasonings. That kind of battle was incredibly profitable."
"So you understand now, right?" The system lured her to choose the male lead.
"I understand, I can't have the orchid bear paw." Guan Zhiwei said with a pained expression.
System: You understand? You understand nothing!
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